Roberts Ink have commissioned a great poster depicting one of the scenes (check out the preview in the shop window page!) and, just for the followers of this blog, there is a sneak preview of the cover here!! Isn’t it amazing – I am so impressed at what a visual artists can do with my words!!

With terror and war at the forefront of the global news, what do we need to do to tackle, limit, or even stop these attacks? In America, Australia, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and the Middle East, the two main concerns seem to centre around the availability of firearms and the issue of mental health. Continue reading Lone Wolf Terrorism→

The number of refugees living in camps in Northern France has increased dramatically over the last five years, with the influx from the migrant crisis adding to the already high numbers of economic migrants from Europe and further afield. These camps have grown exponentially and with such growth comes suffering, appalling conditions, and the worst kind of human interaction – exploitation. I am, of course, talking of the traffickers and the exploiters many of whom are British or French using the desperation and fear that exists in these camps for their own ends. Continue reading Child Refugee→

Do you have a fake fur jacket? Perhaps a glimmer of fur around your Uggs or the hood of your coat? Then, in all likelihood, you may be wearing real animal fur.

An investigation by the Humane Society has revealed that the “faux fur” jackets by designer Marc Jacobs sold at Century 21 department stores actually contained dog fur. This is just an example of a mainstream retail company using dog fur from China to line its clothing under the pretext that it is fake fur. There was a storm at the time and it was withdrawn but do you know if what you are wearing is really ‘faux fur’ or not? The problem is that they often blend real fur with fake fur to line a hood, jacket or boots so legally that can say it’s fake fur but, in reality, it’s not.

If you’re like me you grew up with people raging against fur being used and raging against people who wore fur, yet in the last five years the fur trade has quadrupled profits and is close to being a 12 billion pound industry, so is the fur trade back in vogue and what has changed? Most fur is used in clothing is taken from dogs, small rodents, minks, and ferrets. There was a time when it was not socially acceptable to be wearing the skin of an animal; so why in the last few years has animal fur in clothing returned, and so many people fine with wearing it? Continue reading Is Fur ‘Cute’ Again→